Yesterday's efforts broke the back of the last leg to start-up, with the only remaining wiring being the interface with the existing Chev circuits:
- wire ignition on (pink 4mm wire).
- wire into the brake circuit (red 2mm wire).
- wire the reverse lights (yellow 2mm wire).
Then it was a case of adding all fluids, holding our collective breath and turning the key!
Nothing.
With "ignition on", we could hear the fuel pump relay click and the fuel pump whirr into life for a couple of seconds then stop. All good. Part of the design.
Then twist to start, we could hear the starter relay click, as well as a loud clack from the starter solenoid... but nothing.
After a couple of twists with nothing, one last twist caught and the engine stumbled into life...
A couple of things... you can hear some lifter tap, so there was a bit of concern around oil pressure. The idle is rough and hunting, plus the accel pedal did nothing.
We killed it and scratched our heads for a while; we needed to know what was going on.
I took a drive to a mate's house (Stu the Aussie champion) who lent me his OBD2 ELM327 adaptor. But on my return, JtC had nailed it!
The plug to the throttle butterfly was loose. A quick click and voila! Smooth idle!
We even had gears. First time in daylight for nine months...
A quick run up the hill showed that the thing was gutless as anything. Full throttle saw the car crawl up the hill... something awry there.
And one final issue, a buzzing from the relay that feeds the fuel pump...
One final video that highlights the baulk on start. The first crank is a no-go and the second fires...
So the issues are:
- baulks intermittently on start-up
- buzzing fuel pump relay
- gutless
Interestingly in the last video, the fuel pump relay is much quieter.
Time to do some research but the issues do not seem insurmountable.
HUGE thanks to JtC for all his efforts! There is no way I could have achieved all this in the time we did without his time, efforts and experience. Well done!
Through the week I booked the exhaust for 9/12 and rego inspection for 12/12, so there is a real urgency now to knock-off the last items on the to-do list... the majority being related to keeping smoke within wires.
We had mini working bee Tue night to fit the battery tray and drill through the firewall on the passenger side for battery positive, thermo fan and starter wires.
During the week, various parts were acquired ready for a committed weekend of wiring...
- 25 mm2 cable (battery to starter, batter to alt, ground)
- lugs for 25mm2 cable
- distribution post for feeding battery +ive to various circuits
- relay base (will reuse a relay from the VZ for P/N start conditioning)
- plug for thermo fan connection
- 10mm dia split conduit
- 16mm dia split conduit
So to the weekend: a HUGE double header from JtC, making the trip north on both Sat (wiring till midnight) and Sun in an attempt to get the beast started.
First mission:
- Create new battery/ground cables.
- Wire the battery positive/starter/alternator/ground harness.
- Wire the existing Chev battery positive harness to the existing horn relay.
- Wire constant power source (red 2 x 6mm wires) from EFI to battery positive...
Detailed shot of the battery +ive distribution post arrangement...
Secondly: Wire the fuel pump (purple 4mm wire). We ran the wire under the carpet (down the passenger side of the car), under the base of the seat and dragged it though into the boot using floor board tongue...
From there we passed it under the car, through a re-purposed grommet (that was used for the old fuel tank vent), up to the fuel pump and terminated.
Third task takes place under the dash (hard to take photos as the wiring is so well hidden!):
Wire a starter relay which is conditioned to feed the starter solenoid only when the trans is in Park or Neutral (managed by the ECU... the existing Chev P/N switch is by-passed).
We grabbed a relay from one of the VZ relay blocks and mounted into a relay base that clipped to the end of the string of relays in the ECU harness.
existing Chev start trigger wire = pin 86
grey 2mm wire from ECU = pin 85 (switched ground).
existing Chev start trigger wire = pin 30 (looped from the feed to pin 86)
wire to starter solenoid = pin 87
Fourth: Wire the thermo fan (green 2 x 5mm wires).
The most annoying work is having to do work a second time. This was what was before us in having to remove the Commodore thermo fan and start the mounting process from scratch with the Falcon fan.
JtC made the trip up and got stuck in.
Thankfully, it was more material removal required than making a shroud. The Falcon fan sat well, hard against the radiator core with a slim profile, allowing the intake pipe to thread its way between the radiator and the power steeering reservior...
The MAF/pod filter assembly is supported and held in position by a bracket off the radiator support.
Note the exposed length of alloy pipe at the throttle body inlet.
Clearance everywhere... a work of art!
BIG thanks to JtC in enduring the pain of doing a task twice-over, all the while taking his time to do it right!
J
P.S.
While inlet + thermo fan was happening, I wire-brushed and painted the battery tray ready for refitting.
P.S.S.
The photos above were taken before the steam pipe was connected, but JtC connected it as well <phew>!
So the original plan to use a thermo fan from a VS V6 Commodore (see here) wasn't going to work.
Once we started dummying-up the intake, it soon became obvious that the massive shroud over the top of the VS fan was going to foul the pipe to the throttle body.
After a bit of research, it was decided to go with a thermo fan from the dark side... a big single from a FG Falcon...
Short piece of silicon hose and alloy pipe off the throttle bode to ensure the 90 degree bend could clear the power steering reservoir.
The more astute reader will notice the missing radiator fan.
Clearing the power steering reservoir meant the huge shroud of the V6 Commdore thermo fan we had installed a couple of weeks prior was now going to foul the intake <sigh>.
Solution to that little issue next post.
The good news is the top radiator hose I sourced here, worked a treat (with a bit of judicial trimming)!
Trialing the MAF/pod position...
Dummied-up...
This will be the final position of the pod/MAF, with some tweaks to be made to the reducer section length (4" section too short... swapped for a longer one), and exposing some of the alloy pipe at the throttle body (by reducing the 90 deg. bend leg length).
After much umming and ahhing over the decision of where to mount the engine ECU + gearbox ECU + associated relays and fuses, the decision was finally made to make use of the existing hole in the firewall, set aside by GM for the clutch master.
It was around 2" diameter, so a cardboard template was cut-out to practice pushing the large ECU harness plugs through...
The first hole was an experiment in leaving the orginal firewall hole diameter and cutting a recess off to one side to house each strand of the harness as we passed it through.
Good in theory, but no cigar... 2" diameter was too small.
On the right is a 3" diameter hole which worked fine.
Time to get cutting...
Getting bigger...
Once drilled-out, all jagged edges were tidied-up with a carbide burr on a drill and lined with a grommet made out of spilt ATF cooler hose.
